The Galaxy S8 costs way more to make than S7

Samsung’s Galaxy S8 costs significantly more to make than predecessors, a new teardown of the device has revealed.

According to IHS Markit, the bill-of-materials (BOM) cost for the standard-sized 64GB Galaxy S8 comes to US$301.60. Adding US$5.90 in manufacturing costs brings the total to US$307.50.

“The preliminary estimated total at this point is $43.34 higher than that of the Galaxy S7 previously performed by IHS Markit, and is $36.29 higher than the total build cost of the Galaxy S7 Edge (review), considered a better comparison to the Galaxy S8,” the firm explained.

The company says the higher BOM costs appear to be part of a trend “that reflects something of an arms race” between Apple, Samsung and other mobile brands.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 is significantly more expensive to make than the S7, representing a new trend of sorts

“While there are new non-hardware features in the Galaxy S8, such as a virtual assistant called Bixby, from a teardown perspective the hardware in the Galaxy S8 and that of the forthcoming new iPhone is expected to be very similar,” said Andrew Rassweiler, Senior Director of Cost Benchmarking Services for IHS Markit.

The firm noted that storage was double that of the base S7 and iPhone 7, coming to a total of US$41.50.

“While in previous years the cost per gigabyte has generally fallen in both the NAND flash and DRAM areas, we have seen rising prices in both DRAM and NAND flash recently due to some tightness in the marketplace.”

The Galaxy S8 and S8+ are expected to launch in South Africa on 5 May. Expect to pay R15 499 for the S8 and R17 499 for the larger S8+.

Featured image: IHS Markit